Banking in Nebraska Territory

Nebraska delegate Henry W. Yates addressed
the World's Congress of Bankers and Financiers in June of 1894
in Chicago on Nebraska's experience with wildcat banks during
territorial days. Information from his paper was presented to
the Nebraska State Historical Society in October of that year.

Yates believed the "banking resources
of the [territorial] period were founded upon a basis which still
supplies ample capital for the enterprising adventurer--the gullibility
of the public. The Territory came into existence at the height
of the 'wild cat and bob-tailed currency' times and the Nebraska
settler who could raise sufficient money to obtain a charter
and pay for the printing of his bank notes, had what would be
termed in these times a 'bonanza.' . . .

"The financial panic of 1857 put an
end to this business and the only record I have ever seen referring
to the banking of this period is in the comptroller of currency's
last report to Congress. Under the statistics of state banks
prior to 1863 I find the following: 'Nebraska, 1857, four banks,
capital, $205,000; circulation, $353,796; deposits, $125,291.
Nebraska, 1858, six banks, capital, $15,000; circulation, $41,641;
deposits, $3,673.'

"The archives of your society may
contain some relics of these early banks, and I presume the official
records of the Territorial legislatures will show the houses
and numbers of those authorized to do business, as special charters
were required in all cases. No banking board was provided or
any public official to whom reports were required to be made,
and if any reports of the condition were published it was done
voluntarily by the bank, and they were doubtless 'doctored' for
the occasion. I do not know upon what authority the figures were
given which appear in the comptroller's report to which I referred,
but no reason exists for doubting their accuracy so far as they
go, and they were doubtless taken from some of these published
reports."